Bridget Phillipson has invoked the zeal of ex-education secretary Michael Gove’s reforms as she set out the need for “urgent” changes to education in England.
But the shadow education secretary’s speech – billed as her chance to set out a “long-term plan for our schools” – was light on new policy detail (see the speech in full below).
Phillipson told the Centre for Social Justice think tank this morning that the “days when Michael Gove, for all our disagreements, brought a fresh eye, high expectations, new focus, are now the distant past”.
“Today I want to set out how in 2024, as a generation earlier, change is urgent, change is pressing, and Labour is ready to deliver the change we need,” she added, later telling journalists Gove brought “a sense of energy and drive and determination about education being central to national life”.
